India is gearing up to begin its nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive, starting 16 January. The flight carrying the first consignment of Covishield vaccine, reached the national capital Tuesday morning. The SpiceJet flight SG8937 departed the Pune airport at 8.05 am landed at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport at about 10.15 am. The first consignment of Covishield consisted of 34 boxes and weighing 1088 kg, Ajay Singh, chairman and managing director, SpiceJet.
“I am happy to share that SpiceJet has carried India’s first consignment of Covid-19 vaccines today [Tuesday]. We will be carrying multiple vaccine consignments to different Indian cities including Guwahati, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bhubaneswar, Bengaluru, Patna and Vijayawada through the day today,” Singh said.
“Today marks the beginning of a long and decisive phase in India’s fight against the pandemic and SpiceJet is proud to assist in the biggest vaccination drive in the history of mankind,” he said.
In its fight against COVID-19, the country earlier granted emergency approval to two vaccines — Covishield by Serum Institute of India and Covaxin developed by Bharat Biotech. The first phase of the COVID-19 vaccination drive will involve health-care workers, both from government and private institutions, getting vaccinated. They will be vaccinated along with sanitation workers, other frontline workers, defence forces, police and other paramilitary forces, the Prime Minister said.
“Civil aviation sector launches yet another momentous mission. Vaccine movement starts,” tweeted Union aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri. He added four airlines will operate nine flights to transport 56.5 lakh doses of COVID-19 vaccine from Pune to 13 cities across the country Tuesday.
“Today @airindiain @flyspicejet @goairlinesindia & @IndiGo6E will operate 9 flights from Pune with 56.5 lakh doses to Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Guwahati, Shillong, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Bhubaneswar, Patna, Bengaluru, Lucknow & Chandigarh,” Puri said.
PNN/Agencies